Keke Palmer: Hey kids! It's your girl Keeks, and I am the proud new author of my book, “I Don't Belong to You.” You know, dust my shoulders off — I'm just kidding. Anyhow, Channel One News starts right now!
Tom: There we go, Keke Palmer kicking us off. We have got a really fascinating interview with her later on in the show. Hey guys, I am Tom Hanson. Let's get started. First up, we are checking in on a deadly weather system that swept across the South and Midwest over the past few days. Officials say the powerful storms have killed at least 16 people across five states.
From tornadoes to record flooding to severe thunderstorms, the storms have left a trail of destruction behind, stretching from Illinois to Texas, which was hit hardest. Much of the city of Canton has been leveled.
Sixteen-year-old Angel Duran walked through the rubble that used to be his house. He was terrified and huddled in a closet with his mother and father when the tornado hit.
Angel Duran: I was holding the closet door so the air wouldn't get in.
Tom: His father and mother were among the injured and taken to a nearby hospital, but they did survive.
Angel: It's hard to believe that that just all happened in 20 seconds.
Tom: Over in Missouri drone footage reveals the extent of the flooding. In Mississippi and Arkansas, heavy winds caused trees to crash and downed power lines. The heavy rain caused the Chicago River to rise to dangerous levels. And over in Oklahoma, officials released water from the Eucha Dam after more than 8 inches of rain fell, forcing residents to evacuate their homes as the storms moved east.
High schoolers in Posey County, Indiana, took the weather in their stride.
Veronica Inkenbrantz: It was a bummer, but having it today worked out fine. It seems like everybody is having a good time.
Tom: They dressed up for a second straight day after flooding postponed their original prom night.
Changing gears here. May got off to a loud and noisy start. Protests and rallies stretched from city to city across the globe as marchers called for greater protection and benefits for workers and immigrants.
Labor groups traditionally hold events for workers’ rights on May 1, but in the U.S., the focus has been against immigration crackdown. In NYC they used the day to push back against President Trump's immigration policies. More than 14 people were arrested. Thousands more turned out in L.A., Milwaukee, Atlanta and many other U.S. cities to stand against President Trump's call to step up deportations.
Things got violent in France. Security forces in the city of Paris used tear gas after protestors started throwing gasoline bombs at police.
The island nation of Cuba often has the world’s largest celebration of International Workers’ Day, but the show of support is often seen as support for the ruling Communist Party.
All right, coming up, a story that is a must-see for those of you who are always forgetting your passwords or losing your ID.
Tom: Keys, ID cards, smartphones — the list goes on and on and on. Just to get around every day can mean carrying a lot of stuff. But some workers in Sweden are testing out a new technology that could put you one step closer to becoming a cyborg! Okay, not really, but the makers do think it could make life a little easier. Emily takes a look.
Emily: This may not look like much, but these small plastic cards hold a lot of powerful information. But if you are like me, they are also pretty easy to lose. So what if there was a better way to do this? Well, a startup company in Sweden may have found a solution.
In a business complex in Stockholm, employees are ditching their key cards and gaining access with just the wave of a hand.
Hannes Sjoblad: Something that you can use just like a key badge.
Emily: At a recent tech conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, Hannes Sjoblad explained how a microchip implanted in his hand makes his life easier. It replaces all the keys and cards that used to clutter his pockets.
Sjoblad: I use this many times a day. For example, to unlock my smartphone, to open the door to my office.
Emily: Sjoblad calls himself a biohacker.
Sjoblad: We biohackers, we think that the human body is a good start, but there is certainly room for improvements.
Emily: The first step in that improvement is getting a microchip about the size of a grain of rice slipped under the skin. Suddenly, the touch of a hand is enough to tell the office printer this is an authorized user.
Woman: Pretty scary, but at the same time, it felt very modern.
Emily: The microchips are radio frequency identification tags, the same technology widely used in things like key cards. The chips have been implanted in animals for years to help identify lost pets — just like my cat, Stanley. Now the technology is moving toward humans. But each touch leaves a digital footprint, and that can compromise privacy, letting people know exactly what you are up to 24/7.
Ian Shore: We're talking about a nonstop potential connection to my body. I can't turn it off; I can't put it away. It's in me. That's a big problem.
Emily: Even a dedicated biohacker has concerns.
Sjoblad: It's very easy to hack a chip implant, so my advice is don't put your life secrets on a chip implant.
Emily: But biohackers also predict the next generation of chips will save lives by monitoring health and fitness. And for now, being chipped means never having to say you are sorry you forgot your key card.
Emily Reppert, Channel One News.
Tom: All right, I have got to say I can’t decide if that is really cool or really creepy.
All right, coming up, actress and singer Keke Palmer sits down with us and gets real about her personal struggles.
Tom: Okay, actress Keke Palmer recently made “People” magazine's World's Most Beautiful list, but her life is far from picture-perfect. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and in a revealing new book, the young actress opened up about her own struggles with anxiety and depression. Cassie Hudson has the story.
Fan: Keke Palmer, of course!
Fan: I follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat.
Fan: Major crush on her — I ain't afraid to say it.
Cassie: Keke Palmer is an actress, recording artist and Snapchat queen. And now she is adding author to her list of accomplishments. In her new book, "I Don't Belong to You: Quiet the Noise and Find Your Voice," Keke gets real, telling the story of her childhood before the glitz and glam of Hollywood.
Palmer: I didn't even realize that we were in poverty. I knew there was suffering, but I couldn't name it. But I just knew, for the most part, I was just with my mom and my dad. You know, I loved that time.
Cassie: The book encourages young people to live a life full of confidence and freedom, using inspirational quotes, hashtags and — yes — emojis.
I think it almost reads like a comforting, really long, group text.
Palmer: Woo! Girl, legitimately, that is what I'm going to literally start calling it because that's what I wanted it to feel like, very inclusive and not, “It's about Keke; it's about Keke.” It’s like, using my story as an example, but it's for all of us. It's a conversation we're all having, like, we're all thinking about.
Cassie: Her book takes on a touchy topic in the country: mental health. The young entertainer reveals her own personal battles with depression and anxiety, illnesses that run in her family.
Palmer: For me it’s like, not only is it important, I feel like, to talk about as a person, as a girl, as a human, but also because, like I said, these things connect. Sometimes, we don't know, we don’t realize where it’s coming from; it's coming back from things we never even knew were passed down to us. Literally, your mind is sick, not you, the person, not the heart of who you are. It's your brain.
Cassie: According to the National Alliance on Mental Health, approximately 1 in 5 teens experience a severe mental disorder at some point during their life.
Teen: I sometimes go through, like, anxiety, a lot of social issues, and it's just like, it’s a really common thing as we grow up.
Teen: I have OCD, you know, obsessive–compulsive disorder, and, you know, I've just been, like, trying to come to school every day, trying to not get depressed as much.
Palmer: And we need to talk about it. It’s the fact that we don't talk about these things that make them so heebie-jeebie. If we actually all just got together and said: “You know what? I think about that from time to time,” and “You know what, I wonder what am I going to do with myself?” And “You know, every now and then, I can't sleep at night because I feel as if I'm not doing enough.”
That's nothing to be ashamed of. The same way you get a rash, the same way you get pneumonia — it happens to your brain, too. That's why we have therapists. That's why we have practices such as yoga, such as meditation.
Cassie: In February Keke visited City College Center for the Arts in Harlem, New York, to meet students, sign books and continue the mental health dialogue.
Palmer: I also let myself know shopping ain't going to make you happy. You're depressed. You're depressed because you feel isolated by your career; you feel like your fame has not allowed you to connect to your peers. Those are the real issues.
Woman: Being a victim of mental illness — depression and bipolar and anxiety and stress — she basically always been that person in my ear saying, “It's not your time.”
Woman: When you see a celebrity, you see them, like, they look all perfect, like everything is normal. But to hear somebody, like, in her position, say, oh, that she do suffer from these things, it just made me feel like I'm not alone.
Cassie: And while everyone might not be talking about it, Keke wants you to know that you can always talk to her about it.
Palmer: And that’s my whole thing; it’s like, you may not be able to get it right where you are, at your school, at your home or at your neighborhood, but you can come to my Instagram page. You can come to my book, and I'll tell you everything I know from the world that I've seen.
Cassie: Cassie Hudson, Channel One News.
Tom: Very down-to-earth and very cool.
All right, to read an excerpt from Keke's book, head on over to ChannelOne.com.
All right, that is a wrap for us. We will see you tomorrow.
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